The first set of plants were put in the ground on 22 April. They are looking really great and they all appear to have taken well in their first couple of weeks.
We still have a few gaps so we are going to get some more plants next week to fill the remaining spaces. The money for the plants has been kindly donated by local residents and also Mark Rath Estate Agents. See below for how you can help.
We have also purposefully left a gap on the site so that we can build a bug hotel to encourage more wildlife. The lovely people at Wokingham in Bloom previously built a similar one down by the Pavillions, however with the new developments in town this will soon be fenced off. The team have rescued the Bug Hotel sign that was on the Pavillions site there and they will be donating it to our garden.
How you can help
The next big job is to build a bug hotel. If you are an amateur carpenter or are just keen to help with its construction then please get in touch. We are also on the look out for some suitable materials, so any old logs (hard wood is best), treated timber, old clay pots etc are very welcome. We want it to look like one of the nicer bug hotels so something purpose built rather than a collection of pallets put on top of each other. We plan to build the bug hotel on the weekend of the 13th May from 10am.
If you would like to help with the donations towards plants then please get in touch. Any amount of donation is welcome. We have a good relationship with Henry Street Nursery so it is better value if we receive donations and then purchase on your behalf. We can then also purchase several of the same plant by pooling our money.
Donations in the form of plants are also welcome but we have some restrictions on what we can have, e.g. they can’t grow over 1 metre high, need to be suitable for the conditions, need to be fairly low maintenance and hardy. If you have something in mind then please get in contact with us and we’ll take a look.
Gipsy Lane Community Garden 